


A Song of Stories

by Snow



Category: Firefly
Genre: Ficlet Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-12
Updated: 2008-08-12
Packaged: 2017-10-04 02:07:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snow/pseuds/Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of 10 Mal/Simon snippets based off of a writing meme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Song of Stories

1\. **Nobody's Moggy Lands, Seanan McGuire**: [lyrics](http://www.songworm.com/lyrics/songworm-parody/NobodysMoggyLands.html)

Mal hadn't expected Simon to be so callous towards the animal. Seein' how the boy treated his sister, Mal would expect Simon to be shedding tears for the soul of the poor creature.

But instead Simon was just looking at it, tilting his head slightly, looking quite clinical, which Mal supposed made a kind of sense.

"Never seen a cat before?" he asked.

"No," Simon said. "I mean, there were some in picture books, but they're pests, aren't they?" He looked so expectantly at Mal, a way that still broke Mal's heart, because he wasn't sure he could make the black make sense to someone he ain't been raised in it.

"They hunt pests. Pretty useful, actually. Might be I should talk with Kaylee and see if she's willing to take on the responsibility for one. It might help keep the rat population down."

Simon looked so impossibly eager. "I could care for it, actually. If you showed me how."

2\. **The Most Trusted Man in Nigeria, Tom Smith**: [lyrics](http://thefump.com/lyrics.php?id=77)

Simon knew Mal was unused to the ways of the central planets, but this was absolutely ridiculous. He would think that the border planets would make someone more capable of seeing through scams, rather than less.

"It's not real," he told Mal, trying to reach up past Mal to erase the message.

"She says we're the only ones who can help," Mal repeated piteously, grabbing Simon's hand and holding onto it.

"And what would make her think that? Look, how would she have heard of you? She doesn't even know your name. She's just calling you sir."

"But she wants to open a business relationship, and we could use the cash."

"There is no cash," Simon patiently repeated. "It's a lie. Designed to get you to give her _your_ cash."

"I don't see how," Mal answered, still confused. "She's going to drop cash on our ship."

"No, she's going to take advantage and empty out the ship when you let her in."

"Oh," said Mal. "Really?"

3\. **I Ain't Got Time For The Blues, Tom Smith**: [lyrics](http://filkertom-itom.blogspot.com/2006/11/014-i-aint-got-time-for-blues.html)

This did not qualify in Mal's book as a good day. Even without the personal drama with Simon and...everything, he'd still have cargo he wasn't going to get paid for and an arm wound.

Now he had to rely on Simon's professionalism to heal his wound, no matter how upset the doctor was at the revelation of the fact that Mal had gotten himself married unwittingly again.

Fortunately Simon could always manage professionalism.

4\. **At The Loch, Dr. Jane**

Simon didn't really want to go sightseeing, but Mal said he was intrigued at the folk story implications of the legend of a mythical beast living in the river. Simon didn't believe him for a second.

He rather suspected it had to do with the fact that Kaylee had said she'd be coming, and Mal was still overly defensive about his relationship with Simon.

An hour later Simon was beginning to fear he'd overestimated Mal's cynicism, because the Captain had bought two toy replications of the mythical creature, and informed Simon that one of them was for him.

"Who's the other one for?" Simon asked. "You?"

"Jayne," Mal sniggered. "I'm going to tie it outside his window. I don't believe," he confided in Simon, "But I think Jayne does."

5\. **Merlin, Escape Key**: [lyrics](http://www.cyphertext.net/escapekey/Merlin.txt)

Mal wasn't a huge believer in destiny. He didn't believe in soul mates either, though he was careful not to ever let Simon know that. He knew that his life was all the better for having taken Simon and his sister in, but he always figured he had a choice.

During the war, Mal had believed in God's path for him, but he felt he had the choice to fulfill every obligation that was asked of him. The choice he had was what made his life worthwhile to God.

And after the war, Mal had clung to those decisions he could make all the fiercer because they were limited. But his future had been what he made of it, and if he couldn't save people's lives at least he had saved his own. That had to count for something.

Now, though, as Mal watched Simon sleeping, for the first time ever he knew that he didn't have a choice. He couldn't walk up and leave now, he wouldn't be able to make it out the door. He wasn't in control of his future, but he wouldn't trade Simon for all the choices in the world.

6\. **Because You Have Wings, Meg Davis**

Simon loved Mal for many things, but if anyone asked him what he saw in Mal (as Kaylee had tearfully done, and which Zoe had done with a grin that Simon hadn't seen the like of which from her since Wash) he would say it was Mal's belief that he had wings.

Mal might not really believe he could fly, but he did believe he had all the basic equipment to do so, if he really wanted, which was why Mal wasn't afraid to stand up for what he felt he had to do because he didn't believe anyone could rightly intimidate him.

It was that belief in himself, a self-confidence Simon had always known he lacked, that let Simon follow Mal places he might not fell comfortable going otherwise, because he knew Mal might someday learn to fly and spirit them both away.

7\. **Mal's Song, Escape Key**: [lyrics](http://vixyandtony.com/lyrics_mal.html)

Mal hadn't had an easy life, but sometimes he found it easy to forget that. There was a sky just waiting for him to fill it, and it was his and those he chose to share it with.

Mal was happy as long as he was free, and he'd always be free. If the Alliance couldn't manage to end that freedom with all their might and with their very fine uniforms, then no one could even come close.

Mal wasn't free because there were people he cared about. Losing the Shepherd reminded him of that because he didn't even know what lay behind Book's mask and he still cared. Losing Wash showed that he wasn't safe, and neither were the people he cared about. And if they couldn't rely on still being around the next day, what point was making plans to go to some other patch of sky the next day.

Mal couldn't forget what had been in his past, but occasionally he embraced it and reminded himself that every day he had with his family was a day more than he would have had if he wasn't free.

8\. **Who Knows Where The Time Goes, Judy Collins**: [lyrics](http://www.mary-black.net/disco/songs/147.htm)

Simon wasn't surprised when Jayne left the ship; he was relieved. Things with the mercenary had taken a turn for the worse when Jayne found out Simon was sly, and they'd never really recovered.

Simon knew Kaylee wouldn't ever mean to leave, but she'd meet a nice man, someone who cared about her, and someone who was saving up to buy his own ship, and she'd settle down with her husband, waiting for that one-day-ship. She'd always been comfortable with idealization and dreams.

Simon wanted River to leave because it would mean that she was alright, that she didn't need him to take care of her anymore. She didn't leave, but she did improve, and she brought her husband to the Serenity and they raised their children on the only place River had ever truly felt comfortable.

Simon had figured Mal might want to make a break for it as soon as the ship started being filled with little ones, but Mal never made mention of how much of a nuisance the children were, even when the eldest, Sasha, emptied all the spice packets into Mal's soup.

Zoe stayed because she couldn't find anywhere else she wanted to go.

Mal stayed because he'd attached such symbolism to his ship, and because he needed to go, and there was no better place to always be moving than a ship.

Simon stayed because Mal and River had stayed, and because he liked painting his life around those he loved.

9\. **Witnesses' Waltz, Kristoph Klover**: [lyrics](http://www.ovff.org/pegasus/songs/witnesses-waltz.html)

Mal knew the Serenity was both the best place in the whole of the 'verse, and not all that impressive looking. So when he brought Simon to one of the biggest ship construction sites that wasn't on the core, he expected Simon to be goggly-eyed with the shinyness of it all. Kaylee would have been, which was one of the reasons Mal hadn't brought her.

Instead Simon spent their time caught up in his own thoughts. "It's not the same," he said at the end.

"Not the same as what?" Mal asked.

"The Serenity," Simon replied. "None of these ships come as near as perfection as her, because none of them are loved half as much. Look at that one." He pointed to a particularly large and sleek design. "The people who end up in it won't care for the labor that went into it, and they won't even care what it looks like from the outside. And the Serenity looks the best from the inside, because it has you inside it."

Mal thought about laughing at Simon's outrageous sincerity, but instead he kissed the other man.

10\. **Beyond The Sky, Margaret Davis**

Simon knows that Mal's home is in the sky, and he appreciates that, but sometimes, even now, he longs for ground beneath his feet more often than it actually shows up. When Mal's in the sky he dreams of more sky, of going that tiny bit further from civilization, but when it's not trying to track him down, Simon's got no problem with civilization.

When he's in the sky, he dreams of the ground.

As a child, Simon never expected to get what he dreamt of. But then, he used to have such different dreams. Dreams like being the doctor his father wanted, and of bringing pride to the family name. He ended up disgracing the family to save the most important member of it, and he never regrets a moment.

Still, sometimes Simon dreams of a home he can't go back to. He thinks he keeps it hidden from River, but he doesn't even bother to make a secret of it to Mal.

"Why can't you go home?" Mal asked one day, after sending River to the kitchen to boil water for tea, a task that would likely take her five times as long as it should.

"Huh?" Simon said.

"I don't mean permanently, but for a visit. You and River. The warrant's been lifted, hasn't it? You could drop in on your folks, tell them what you think of what they did."

**Author's Note:**

> I welcome and appreciate all kinds of comments, though I would (obviously) prefer if any criticism was constructive. :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [keep your hand on my thigh (the friction like the back of a matchbook remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/87219) by [mjules](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mjules/pseuds/mjules)




End file.
